Studies Highlight Long Term Health Harms of Juvenile Justice System

1/23/2017

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The United States, with 1.3 million child and adolescents
arrests each year, incarcerates a far greater proportion of youth than any
other developed country. Two new studies in the February 2017 Pediatrics
(both published online Jan. 23) suggest far-reaching health consequences for
individuals and society. For the study, “How Does Incarcerating Young People Affect Their Adult Health Outcomes?” researchers analyzed National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data and found a
dose-dependent link may exist between the amount of time the 14,344
participants, now adults, had spent in juvenile detention centers or jail
during junior high or high school and future health problems. After adjusting
for baseline health and socio-demographic factors, participants who were
incarcerated less than a month were more likely to experience symptoms of
depression as adults, and those incarcerated for 1 to 12 months had worse adult
general health. The most dramatic effects were seen among participants detained
for more than a year, whose odds of having depressive symptoms were more than
four times as high and odds of having suicidal thoughts were twice as high. In
addition, their odds of having physical or mental limitations that interfered
with day-to-day functioning were three times higher than participants who
hadn’t been incarcerated. A second study, “Disparities in HIV/AIDS Risk Behaviors After Youth Leave Detention: A 14-Year Longitudinal Study,” looked at
15 different risk factors tied to HIV/AIDS behaviors and found them to be
significantly higher among 1,829 adults who’d been detained as juveniles in
Chicago 14 years earlier, compared to the general population. A solicited
commentary about the studies, “Changing Risk Trajectories and Health Outcomes
for Vulnerable Adolescents: Reclaiming the Future,” calls for system-wide
reform of the juvenile justice system to boost alternatives to youth
incarceration and integrate risk-reduction and health care services into
detention facilities.

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The
American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 66,000 primary
care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric
surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of
infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information,
visit www.aap.org and follow us on Twitter @AmerAcadPeds.